Two newly built homes have sold for record high prices in Pilsen and McKinley Park, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. 

Pilsen, already branded as an up-and-coming neighborhood, had a new =home sell for $806,000 in December. Previously, the highest sale on record in the neighborhood was $738,000, according to the report. 

Both of the homes with record sale prices, dubbed +Plus Houses, come from builder Cil Dara, according to the report. The homes are marketed as “green-built.”

These two home sales are part of a larger trend in this Lower West Side neighborhood. At least eight homes sold for $600,000 or more in the neighborhood last year. Over the past five years, home prices in Pilsen have gone from $84 per square foot to $225 per square foot.

Rising prices in the neighborhood can be attributed to increased development in the neighborhood that includes more residential buildings and public space. For example, a vacant lot in the neighborhood has been rezoned to make way for new townhomes. Another vacant lot is being considered for the ParkWorks project, a mixed-use development that will feature residential space and 10,000 square feet of retail space.

In addition to new developments like these, the planned, four-mile Paseo trail is expected to continue driving prices up in the neighborhood. Experts are comparing the Paseo to The 606 trail, which resulted in skyrocketing prices in Logan Square and Humboldt Park.

McKinley Park also saw a record home sale. Previously, the top home sale in the Southwest Side neighborhood was $480,000. This year, a newly built home sold for $506,000, Crain’s Chicago Business reports. The builder, A&SL Construction, has not indicated if the company has any plans to build and sell homes at a similar price point in McKinley Park.

In 2017, the median sales price for a single-family home in the neighborhood increased 14.3 percent to $251,000, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. McKinley Park’s rising prices can be traced back to its hot neighbors: Pilsen and Bridgeport. 

While McKinley Park may not be as popular as Pilsen and Bridgeport, there are plenty of indications that point toward it becoming a new trendy Chicago neighborhood. Bisnow points to several growth catalysts in the neighborhood including the Orange Line and the area’s proximity to the Stevenson Expressway, which links downtown Chicago and Joliet.

The Orange Line could mean the area is ripe for the growing trend of transit-oriented developments. The stretch of the Orange Line in McKinley Park runs along a number of vacant lots, which could be opportunities for TODs, according to Bisnow.

The Stevenson also runs through Garfield Ridge and Bridgeport, both of which have seen increased commercial development in the form of storage and data centers, according to Bisnow.